The present invention relates to a wireless communication system. More particularly, the present invention relates to an emergency call system which improves the grade of service (GOS) of a wireless communication system that has reached its maximum call capacity.
Wireless local loop systems are used in remote locations which typically have electricity but do not have telephone service. Instead of spending money on providing a wireline telephone service, it is typically easier to use a wireless local loop system. The wireless local loop system allows a user to operate a telephone at a remote site. The typical wireless local loop system includes at least one telephone device which is connected to an interface which in turn is connected to a radio telephone transceiver (either cellular or other wireless systems). The combination of the telephone device or devices and the remote radio telephone transceiver is referred to as the xe2x80x9csubscriber unit.xe2x80x9d
In a wireless local loop system, the link from the subscriber unit to the telephone system, for example, the local-exchange switch, is provided at least partially by a wireless communication channel. For example in a cellular wireless local loop (WLL) system, each subscriber unit is in a fixed location and communicates with a cellular radio base station responsible for all subscriber units within a cell. Sets of subscriber units communicate with one or more base stations which in turn are connected to the rest of the telephone network, typically a local exchange switch or other voice switching communications network router.
A caller cannot place a call in a wireless local loop system without a communication link existing between the subscriber unit and telephone system, including a wireless communication channel between the subscriber unit and the base station. In a typical wireless local loop system, there are usually more subscriber units than available wireless communication channels for audio links. Therefore in an emergency situation, a caller might not be able to make an emergency call because there are no wireless communication channels available.
In wireless telephone systems, the failure to obtain an open communication channel to place a telephone call is an xe2x80x9caccepted evil.xe2x80x9d However if someone is trying to place an emergency call, this accepted evil can be fatal. In an emergency, it is imperative that a caller be able to dial an emergency telephone number. An emergency telephone number can be xe2x80x9c911xe2x80x9d or the telephone number for the police, ambulance, fire department, poison control, or another known emergency telephone number.
A wireless local loop system subscriber unit may have a locally generated dial tone to simulate the xe2x80x9clook and feelxe2x80x9d of a conventional wireline telephone device when the handset is taken xe2x80x9coff hook.xe2x80x9d Alternatively, detecting an off hook condition on the telephone device of the subscriber unit may lead to a channel assignment request being made to a base station. Once a wireless channel is assigned, this being a channel for an audio link, a dial tone is generated by the switch and transmitted to the subscriber unit as in conventional wireline systems. The embodiments of the present invention are more suitable to this second case but may be used in both cases. The embodiments of the present invention also are suitable for use in a regular cellular system wherein the subscriber units are not necessarily fixed in location and may not necessarily be attached to a xe2x80x9cplain old telephone setxe2x80x9d (POTS).
In a wireless local loop system in which a dial tone is not generated until an audio-grade communication channel is assigned from the subscriber unit to the local switch, three things must occur in order to allow a caller to dial an emergency number without the presence of a dial tone: 1) the caller must be able to dial a telephone number, even without requiring a switch-generated dial tone or indeed any dial tone to be present, 2) the telephone number dialed must be recognized in some manner as an emergency call, and 3) the call must be placed if indeed it is recognized as an emergency call. Present day wireless telephone systems, whether wired or not, do not allow a call to be placed in this manner.
Therefore there is a need for a telephone system which activates an emergency call recognition system, recognizes when an emergency number is dialed and provides a communication channel for the caller to complete such a call even at maximum capacity. Such a system also would cut off or otherwise compromise the service quality of those calls that are not emergency calls when the system is operating at such maximum capacity.
One feature of the present invention is allowing for the placement (by dialing) of emergency telephone calls in a wireless system operating at capacity.
Another feature of the present invention is providing a communication channel to a caller who is placing such an emergency call in a wireless system.
Another feature of the present invention is using an emergency call recognition system which compares the dialed number (a sequence of digits) to one or more predefined digit sequences defined as emergency telephone numbers in a wireless system.
Yet another feature of the present invention is recognizing if an emergency telephone number has been dialed without requiring a dial tone in a wireless system.
Yet another feature of the present invention is providing an indicator to a caller if all of the communication channels are in use in a wireless system.
One aspect of the present invention is an emergency call recognition system which is part of a wireless system and which recognizes when a dialed number is an emergency number is dialed and which provides a wireless communication channel to the caller to complete the call when the call is determined to be an emergency call. Thus, the present invention allows emergency calls to be made at any time by ensuring allocation of a communication channel for this purpose.
In a first embodiment of the present invention, a certain number of wireless channels of the totality of communication channels licensed to a wireless system are reserved for the purpose of determining at the base station if a set of dialed digits is an emergency call when all the non-reserved channels are busy. While this reduces to some extent the maximum capacity of the system for non-emergency calls, the grade of service (GOS) for emergency calls is dramatically improved.
In a second embodiment of the channel allocation of the present invention, a number of low-bit-rate wireless communication channels is reserved for the purpose of recognizing at the base station when an emergency call is being made when all full-rate channels are busy. These low-bit-rate channels typically are not sufficient for an audio communication, for example, for voice or a facsimile. The recognition preferably is digit by digit. After emergency number determination, via a priority recognition system, the emergency call is given a full-rate (e.g., audio-grade) wireless communication channel by cutting off an existing full rate non-emergency telephone call or downgrading the bit rate of one or more non-emergency telephone calls.
In a third embodiment of the channel allocation of the present invention, the subscriber unit recognizes an emergency telephone number, preferably digit by digit. Thereafter the subscriber unit sends an emergency link request to the base station. If there are no available channels, the base station assigns a channel by disconnecting or otherwise downgrading an existing telephone call that is not an emergency call or degrading the bit rate of existing non-emergency calls, providing the freed channel to the emergency caller.
As defined herein, an emergency call is defined as a sequence of digits of a set of pre-defined emergency digit sequences (e.g., 911). Any user who dials a pre-configured emergency number using either DTMF or pulse dialing will have an improved chance of seizing a channel on a congested system. Emergency numbers can then be detected in the base station of the wireless local loop or, in another embodiment, in the subscriber unit of the present invention, for example, before channel allocation. In the preferred embodiment, emergency numbers are detected on a digit by digit basis to rapidly determine if the sequence is not an emergency number, such determining being possible before all the numbers have been dialed, thereby speeding up the determination of which telephone calls are not emergency numbers.